Autolite Spark Plugs - CHINA

The CarQuest rotors were up until about two years ago made in U.S.A (better line-more$) and Canada (cheaper but still not too bad-very few comebacks. Company rolled in the new ALL CHINESE rotors and they are nothing but trouble with tons of comebacks and if you find good ones, you better turn them new out of the box to make sure they are true. You won't hear anyone from that company respond because all of the managers are jumping ship or being fired by all of the store closings. Too bad because CQ used to be my only source for good parts. R.I.P.

 

Please visit http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/ if you want to find a few things built/fabricated in this country.

I too am a Honeywell guy but in the Defense end so we are more immune to outsourcing overseas than the other parts of my company.


Please allow me to point out that Jay Buckley is /was known as the Bendix Answerman for a very long time. He runs circle around the rest of the brake experts when it comes to troubleshooting and helping with brakes. He obviously is now involved in the other sectors of our company and knowing his background, I can tell you he is serious when he wants you to write directly to him. In fact, I sent this whole thread to our corporate folks just so they could get a feel what us hot rod-types think about these decisions. Not saying it does anything but the fact that Jay is on here says a lot abut his personal convictions and his intent. In big companies like ours, a few of us small guys can not have much influence but we try.

Let me also say that I spend a heck of a lot of money keeping this country going. I had a windshield put in my car and when it was done, I saw a small sticker that said Made in China. I called the insurance man and had them remove it and put one in that was an OEM one (A PT Cruiser, yes parts form Mexico).

I refuse and in fact, go out of my way to never, ever buy Chinese stuff for my 69 Cuda. I live a mile from Walmart and have not stepped foot in it for years and will not do so. We can all say we care but you know what? There are 98 people for every 2 of us that do not seem to carre as much and they still go to Wal-Mart (some have no option) and it still continues to cause jobs to be lost here. I guess the point is we can do so much within a small hobby but, the rest will have to see what it takes and that will be, or already has been, losing all mid-level manufacturing jobs in this country (my opinion). This loss is killing us and if we had not lost so many (in my opinion), when the economy picks up, we could be making money in cool jobs again. What will we do this time though?

Autolite/Schwinn/RCA/even Hunter fans! What a sad, sad thing and my Grandad would be mad to see what this country has become just so many can pay $1.50 for a part overseas rather than $2.00 for one from here. Sam Walton would also be disgusted to see what they did to his "Buy American" campaign he ran so successfully before he passed away.

And on top of that, my favorite local Dodge and Chrysler Plymouth dealers just got shut down. That is another story. …

So please understand Jay is one of us, directed by and working for a company ultimately guided and controlled by our spending habits and those of our neighbors and relatives and friends.

Thanks for the soapbox.
Tom Hand
KC,MO

 

I bet a lot of potential buyers of Autolite plugs ain't gonna buy them now,I won't.

 

I try to buy USA...some stuff you just can't though and it sucks.

I was looking at my kids hot wheels...I say out loud oh great! Made in China. My six year old replies...everything is made in China. I reply WHAT! who told you that. He replies...I read it on all my toys. I proceed to dig through his toys and sure enough company's that I thought were USA are China made now. I was disgusted.

We need a website that lists USA made items so when we are going to shop for plugs/filters/belts we know what to look for.

I try to buy USA first and buy China only when I can't find what I am looking for in USA.

 

If my spark plug purchase is going to be foreign made, it will be NGK or Denso. I am tired of having imported products made by "American" brands that cost nearly what the U.S. made item would from my wallet, but the margin goes to various levels of uneeded intenational shipping and the bonuses of the boards of directors.
The Felpro gaskets, Clevite bearings, Sealed Power rings and Melling pump along with all the Permatex thread locker,anti seize and RTV that went into the rebuild of my beater truck engine were all made in the states. That was last month. The next project, maybe next week, will also get domestic sourced parts.
Oh yeah, I used an old new set of Autolite plugs. If they would have said China or such, I would not have bought them.

 

This thread is pretty entertaining. It's funny how it's so hard for big businesses to understand that people don't like the crappy quality of stuff made in China. It's just that stuff has been getting crappy for so long that we've come to expect it. I guess the easy money of selling Chinese stuff at a big profit for the same cost of what quality stuff used to go for has them all blinded. They just see $$$$ signs and charts showing labor costs going down and potential profits going up until the reputation of the company goes into the toilet and they go out of business. Maybe someday some super genius marketing guy will realize that people actually do care about quality for some things and that people are willing to pay for quality, and that a reputation for quality actually helps a company and improves sales. But it might be years from now before someone that smart comes along.

No offense to the guy from Autolite, but I have to say I will think twice about buying Autolite spark plugs again, especially if they say "made in china" on them. No matter what type of assurances they might give me and how sure they are of their product, I don't have any faith at all that anything coming out of China has anything close to the quality of USA made stuff. Stuff from there is made as quickly and cheaply as possible. They probably have a foreman standing their yelling at the workers "QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY QUICKLY AND CHEAPLY" to make sure nobody works too carefully. If two parts are supposed to have close tolerances where they fit together, usually they're either way too tight or way too loose. It's like they don't even bother putting a micrometer on anything that comes out of a machine shop there, or they don't replace drill bits or reamers or cutting tools until one breaks off in the part, and if it does break off, just put the part in the shipping container anyway.

I saw a headline this morning that GM was thinking about manufacturing some of their cars in China in the future and to me that's like they're just slapping the USA in the face after we use our tax money to bail them out. GM saying they're worried about their quality image and at the same time thinking about making stuff in China? What a bunch of geniuses.

 

I too look long and hard for Made in USA and it pisses me off when I find American names on now foreign things (liek Raybestos high end brake rotors). Please go to www.stillmadeinUSA.com and look around. I have shirts and plan to buy clothes from there and they cost only a bit more than the cheap junk. You will even see jeans from Texas, Texas Jeans and they are as cheap as Wal-Mart stuff. Not many car part names on the list though.
I use Champion and always have and will as long as Cooper stays in the country makign them here.
Tom

 

I've had AC plugs with like 100,000 miles on them run okay and look good when I pulled them, replaced one set with Autolites and if anything the truck runs a little worse than before. Next time I get AC's -

But I can't blame Allied Signal too much. These companies wouldn't be sending the manufacturing to China if the government here wasn't taxing them to death, telling companies to do this or do that then blaming them when it goes wrong, and so on. A company exists to make a profit, and if they're forced to pay costs they can't control, they have to cut someplace else to make a profit, especially in today's world of demand for instant gratification, even in the stock market. If they don't make a profit, they go the way of Chrysler, even the secured creditors get screwed, so... If I was an American company I'd want to move to some other country, too.

 

I just got a wheel bearing seal in a Timken box. It read made in Mexico. 3 days later I bought another seal, same application, Timken on the box, it says made in Singapore. The Singapore one is crappier than the Mexico one, the diameter of the spring in the seal is smaller also. The quality of parts is getting worse and worse.

The wheel bearings, in the Timken box are marked made in Mexico. Good thing nobody in the US needs a job.

I looked at a new Ford Fusion the other day. Transmission is made in Japan and the rest was made in Mexico.

Turn and brake signal bulbs at NAPA here are all Chinese, no options, and I will tell you they fail quickly.

 

My last wix filter i bought said MADE IN MEXICO, i about shit when i saw that, bosch used to be good,now they are garbage, now WIX? the Ngk plugs are good though, at least the Japanese care about quality more then the chinese. Oh does anyone know if Blackhawk(proto) is now made in china or something? Just had a 3/8 wrench crap out after 20 years of service,and abuse, the new ones look like the old k mark tools from the 70's. My old one says made in USA in large letters, the new one had no markings and i left it in the store. I think i'll have a funeral for my old one and make it a headstone, since it's never coming back.

 

So, I was at Wally World tonight to see if they had the Jesse James work wear...they didn't but I ended up buying 4 items and 2 of the 4 were made in the USA

Dog Treats - Made in USA
Dog Bones - Made in USA
XXXX Steel Wool package (same brand you see every where) - Made in China
One pair of Starter brand shorts that I can wear to the gym - Made in Jordan

They did have rawhide treats made in china...which made me wonder how many cows are in china or if they import the materials from somewhere else.

And I am thinking of starting a USA made auto parts website where users can input the products into categories and where they found it so others can use it to find parts for our cars/trucks/bikes/toys/etc...figure I will write up what I need code wise and outsource it to china. JOKING on the last part. I can do it myself.

PS...also a conversation that was going on at my work between some of the welders was how the new pipe we get from china is shit and feels different when welding. This is from the older guys...the new kids that are welders do not know because all the pipe that they have ever welded is from china.

 

I just bought a new clutch disc from Clutchnet.com; a family-owned outfit in Calif. that makes them to order and for good prices. Very nice piece and was less than OEM or eBay pricing for similar discs (for an O/T car). They'll be getting my future work.

 

http://www.madeinusa.org/

here enjoy ,,all over the world in every country you will find things made in other countries..also if ENOUGH people were buying the stuff made in America when it was being made here maybe the companies would not have had to go over seas ?

But hey everyone run to your car and pull those evil spark plugs out now !!

"we" ?? what did you do?? Did you return them ??

 

I bought the pertronix coil/igniter kit, and the coil was made in china. Anyone know which aftermarket ignition suppliers are still made in the USA ?

 

Heh Little Wing you sound like me 35 years ago I came to Asia to sell products made in USA and Canada. After years of trying I gave up sure I had some success and sure I was written up in the papers back home as a good guy but that that doesn't feed you and pay your bills or give you spare money to build Hot Rods.

Mean while I was meeting all these guys from back home who were importing cheap goods or setting up manufacturing over here and shipping the stuff back home and making a killing.

They said Andy why be so stupid and bust your ass when you can make a killing like us. I said I refuse to put people back home out of work, they said don't feel sorry for them( they don't give a shit for you) look after your self and get rich off them.

I refused !!!!!

You know you people back home have no one to blame but your selves and the government for allowing cheap imports and not demanding fair treatment on this end.

You know its not a level playing field out there folks. We allow there products in with little hassle but man try bringing our products in over here you won't believe how the playing field is tilted in their direction.

Anyways here's to the guys who are trying to export our goods and the one thing that will happened from this recession is that we are buying less goods from over here and hopefully will start building back home again.

God help us if we get in a Major war as we make very little these days we arn't like we were in the start of the II WAR.

Anyways why should I care I see most companies don't give a damn and most people back home are clue less and the people in the government sure arn't protecting you or before they sure wern't under Bush, hopefully this new government will do a better job.

Heh if I burst your bubble tough !

By the way I made myself quite wealthy in Asia selling to Asians and foreigners who wanted to live over here by selling them there own land and building them western style homes.

 

very true...most companies do not give a shit about us....it is all about the bottom line and cutting costs. Even with the ones that do produce in the USA...they do not give a rats ass about employees.

But by buying MADE IN USA we are showing support to the workers of those companies to.

Just got back from AutoZone...bought
2 motorcraft oil filters - made in usa
2 different cans of spray paint - made in usa
2 felpro gaskets...pretty sure they are made in usa. had a usa address on it and could not find the MADE IN part though...
and 8 autolite sparkplugs - made in mexico

 

I know that people back home don't want to pay $5 for a $2 dollar item thus we import. But our goods that go to the countries over seas have to have a level playing field for our goods. What good is it if we let down our taxes on there imported goods if they won't treat us the same.

Example in Thailand they manufacture Toyota Yaris and sell it to USA and Canada yet when I brought my Hot Rod here to Thailand they would not let me import it with out paying 200 to 300 % or 400% tax. Now this is not a level playing field.

Okay we need to concentrate on making things that they need as we will never be able to compete against a man making $100 dollars and month and we make $2,000 or $3,000 a month.

But if we export the tools for making the goods that we can compete with and they use cheap labor to make these goods then we no longer have an advantage.

Heh I don't want pay $10 dollars for a USA made spark plug when I can buy the same spark plug from China made by a US company working there for $2 dollars. But they have to buy our products so that people back home have work.

We have to some how control things for years now everything has been coming out of China and very little of our stuff going there. You can't run your life that way the money always going one way there has to be a balance.

 

I went to buy some Autolite Platinum plugs for my Ford and the box said "made In the USA". Now does that mean the plugs are made in the USA or the box? I left them there and ordered NGK.

 

Another sellout I wont be buying anymore autolites.F#$k em....

 

please guys blame the bean counter he,s cheep and a fool

 

ok
my old boss was impoting spark plugs from east germany and ran them in his race car they where made very well and to date it is a bosch plug plant so plugs can be made any where in the world
but u have a valid point to grumble about
we should consume made in north america parts

 

on a bright note...the BIG HUGE autolite sparkplug poster outside of Autozone says MADE IN THE USA on the box on the poster.

 

i checked the box here for just reg 46. made in china. rather have mexican plugs than chinese.

 

I bought some Autolite 46 for my F100 today and they were made in USA...

 

Well, most people would go for the $2 foreign part, but I will buy the $5 US part every time.
I say we tax and tariff foreign stuff just as much as they do to our stuff. That's MY idea of "fair trade."

 

I think the problem is we don't want to pay $5 for a $2 part, we want to pay $2 for a $2 part, but the only choice we get is to pay $2 for the 25-cent equivalent of the part.

 

If it says made in usa, its made in usa. I know you guys can read, I specifically said we make spark plugs in the usa and mexico and source low running, nearly obsolete plugs from china.
And, thanks for sending even more money to NGK.

 

I can tell you right now, nitro and Fram filters don't get along. At least the orange ones!! Ask me how I know.

 

I hate to say it but autolights suck nowdays. My older Autolights didnt rust, the newer ones do. They changed something in the tip, I dont know. NGK, Bosch, or Champions.
Maybe motor king can tell us why we should buy his sparkplugs when they rust, of all things.

 

This thread has been interesting and I thank Motor King for his input. While I may not agree with the practice of importing things that could be Made in the USA, I undestand how businesses, particularly publicly held, are almost forced to do so. None the less, I will continue to buy products as exclusively as possible manufactured in this country and I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see others take this innitiative.

I believe it is up to us, the American people, to change this trend in our economy. We can vote, speak out, and protest all we want for manufacturing to return to this country but all of it will fall on deaf ears until we act with our wallets.